Oregon, Georgia, Boise State, Arizona State earn byes in first 12-team College Football Playoff

On By Littum

It may be difficult to match the upside from last season’s games, at least from an NFL draft perspective, but there are still some notable prospects who will have the chance to improve their draft stock against a strong field of competition in the expanded playoff .

One of the most intriguing is Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty. A Heisman Trophy candidate and college football’s leader in rush yards, all-purpose yards and touchdowns, Jeanty is one of the most exciting RB prospects to come along in recent years.

Jeanty’s Broncos earned a first-round bye with their win over UNLV in the Mountain West title game Friday night. They await the winner of the 6-11 game between SMU and Penn State. If the Nittany Lions win, Jeanty will face his toughest test yet. PSU’s defense features several standout prospects, including edge rusher Abdul Carter up front.

There are talented quarterbacks in the playoff field, but how many of them end up in the 2025 draft class — and how many are truly highly regarded prospects — remains to be seen. Georgia’s Carson Beck hasn’t had his best season, suffering what coach Kirby Smart called an “upper extremity injury” in Saturday’s SEC Championship game against Texas. He left the contest after suffering the injury on the final play of the first half before returning to deliver the game-winning final play in overtime. His status for the quarterfinal game against either Notre Dame or Indiana remains up in the air as of this writing.

Texas’ Quinn Ewers and Penn State’s Drew Allar are two very talented but polarizing QB prospects who will be in action in Round 1. Both could help their future draft stocks with strong performances and extended playoff runs.

Indiana, the darlings of college football this season, features an Aidan O’Connell-esque prospect in Kurtis Rourke, who will duel with Notre Dame and QB Riley Leonard up the road in South Bend, Indiana, in the opener.

Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel lacks prototypical size for the position, but perhaps a run to the National Tide Game could change his arc as a prospect.